A Walgreens separation would oppose the trend to consolidate the healthcare system

A spread of Walgreens into three companies would move away from the industry trend to consolidate health services.

In a report in the past week, in which the Walgreens Walgreens Boots Boots Alliance would be divided into three companies, the sale or spinning of boots UK would include more than 1,800 shops in overseas, “from local pharmacies to large shops for health and beauty,” says the company's website.

In the United States, Walgreens Retail pharmacies would also be divided into another company. The rapidly growing special pharmacy business, which Walgreens has already highlighted as a 24-billion dollar company, would be one third company.

“While the company is originally taken privately as a whole, Sycamore (partner) is planning to separate three main business of Walgreens in their own units with different capital structures,” reported the Financial Times in its four-stroll history.

The news of a potential Walgreens separation comes because the competing CVS health keeps all companies, including the retail pharmacies and the growth of OAK Street Senior Health Center. CVS also owns the country's third largest health insurance company in Aetna and one of the largest companies for pharmacies management (PBM) in Caremark. The possession of a health insurer and PBM enables these CVS companies to buy services from its provider trees for discounts on health plans as well as employer and government customers.

“We have the leading PBM, the best-guided pharmacy in this country, a famous franchise company through Aetna and industry-leading assets for healthcare,” CVS Managing Director David Joyner told the company's third quarter of the quarter in November after he had replaced Karen Lynch as the company's top executive. “Our collection of companies and omnichannel skills enables us to promote the industry with innovative and market-moving solutions.”

In the past decades or longer, Walgreens has opposed to go to the business, pay for the operation of the healthcare system without having a PBM or a health plan. As some analysts say, it was a strategic mistake.

The efforts of Walgreens to pack more health services in its retail pharmacies or connected them was the least rock. Under the former managing director Roz Brewer, Walgreens invested billions of dollars to the operator of the clinic operators and in business administration.

Walgreens invested more than 6 billion US dollars in Villagdirt under Brewer to take on a controlling share. However, the company has already withdrawn dramatically when expanding the doctor's practices and clinics that the company opened on Walgreens. In 2020, Walgreens said to open 500 to 700 “Dorf Medical near Walgreens” in more than 30 US markets over five years.

The CEO von Walgreens, Tim Wentworth, who replaced Brewer in October 2023, said a year ago that Walgreens and partner Villagemdirt had partially slowed down the openings of the number clinic because the operators were unable to fill their “patient panels”, which represent a certain number of individual patients under the treatment of a specific provider.

In the meantime, Walgreens, who closed business and reduced the costs, reported a net loss of $ 265 million or 31 cents per share in the first quarter of the financial year, which ended on November 30 of last year. This corresponds to a loss of 67 million US dollars or 8 cents per share in the previous year.

Walgreens has not commented on speculation that the company is taken privately by Sycamore or whether it was a separation to work. And every sale of Walgreens would probably need the support of the Italian billionaire and the former CEO of companies, Stefano Pessina, who holds a 17% participation in Walgreens.

But Walgreens has already tried to sell some of the healthcare assets such as his participation in Villagemdirt. And Wentworth's focus on turning the company around included the reduction in debt. The Walgreens participation to Cencora has dropped from 10% to 6% to sell more shares of the drug dealer for the proceeds of around 300 million US dollars.

“Our results in the first quarter reflect our disciplined execution against our priorities of 2025: stabilization of the retail pharmacy by optimizing our footprint, control of operating costs, improving the cash flow and the further control of reimbursement models,” said Wentworth in January.